Trying to Ease Off the Reminders

Today I rearranged the dog beds.

I've had 3 in a row along the wall across from my desk--Rem's on the right (a raised PVC bed w/big soft cushion), Jake's on the left (an ancient upholstered chair), and another, smaller, raised PVC bed with a fleece mat in the middle. No one ever used the third one much. There's a heater vent at bed level in the wall between Rem's bed and the middle one. Remington simply loved lying next to the heater vent, so that was perfect for him. The other 2 don't much like it, I don't think.

I've been trying to see whether either of them will use Rem's old bed. Washed the cover so it didn't smell as much like Rem. Both would hop on and off, but not stay. So a week or so ago I moved just the big cushion onto the floor on the opposite side of the aisle. Both of them have now spent time lounging there, but especially Tika.

Today I moved it back onto the raised bed. I also moved all the beds around so that they're no longer in the positions they were in while Remington was alive. I'm hoping that that will make it easier for the others to decide to use the beds more freely. And I'm hoping it will avoid the problem that everytime I notice Rem's empty bed in the same old corner, it stabs me.

We'll see whether the fact that everything is rearranged is actually *more* noticeable.

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